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February 28, 2007

A new semi-annual giveaway?

Seven_million Congratulations to the blog! Here are tonight’s statistics:

Total number of hits: 7,006,135
Average per day: 6,261.67
Last seven days: 73,759
Today since midnight GMT: 14,743

I’d like to create a new contest with some money prizes, but I’m drawing a blank. Please suggest some ideas to energize this place. It’s getting kind of boring…

I’m also interested to see what you readers look like. I don’t care if you’re young & pretty, or not. Please post your photos in the comments. If you don’t, I’ll quit. Update: I guess, you cannot download a photo, you'll have to sumbit a link... Oh crap...

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February 28, 2007 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack

November 08, 2006

By the way, I am leaving for a short winter vacation in China. As usual, I prepared daily posts for the whole time I’m away, so you’ll find enough entertainment here during the next few weeks.

I am also thinking of changing the format of this blog when I return. I used to have up to 20 pages of raw links that I gathered for future postings, but in the last few months I depleted them all. Maybe I will start more timely, more single-entry type-posts, like most other blogs. We’ll see how it works…

Meanwhile, you may read Growabrain feed on FeedFury, if you wish

November 8, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 20, 2006

First Poll

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August 20, 2006 in Polls, Website News | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 13, 2006

500 comments!

Mercy_corps Since I am always complaining at the scarcity of comments on this blog, I offered a $100 dollar prize to one random commentator, if I get 500 comments in less than 30 days. I am glad to announce today that the contest is now over after receiving those many “Hello”s. Yeah!

As far as the winner, I wanted to eliminate any hints of favoritism, and decided that it will be chosen by somebody else than me. To randomize it, I said that the person who left the very first comment may choose the winner, and in this case it happened to be Uwe Lübbermann of Hamburg. Uwe took this task seriously, read all the comments and gave it some thoughtful consideration, to come up with Laurie X Wayne of Portland, OR as the winner. Laurie is a world traveler, a teacher & Entrepreneur. Click on the picture above to see her peddling the Willamette Narrows. From her flickr set here are some Lamprey mouths.

And the reason Uwe picked Laurie’s comment? She wrote on her July 23 comment: “If you pick me, you can just give the money to Mercy Corps”. So today, I contacted Laurie at her home, and gratefully sent her the $100 check prize, to go toward the charity of her choice.

I want to sincerely thank everybody who participated, as well as the many bloggers who advertised the contest on their sites.

Question: What kind of a crazy contest should I come up with next?

By the way, Uwe Lübbermann is part of a German collective who produces Premium-Cola. Premium-Cola is not a company, since profit is not a goal of the collective. There is no office, no salaries and no actual boss. All members of the collective make a living by other jobs and build up Premium-Cola as sort of a hobby. All issues are decided on collectively, there is hardly any advertising - instead, art pictures are printed on the inside of the bottles' labels. So, if you are an artist who would like to have your art being drunk, you can contribute to the project, by adorning these fine soft drink bottles. Please contact them with for details.

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August 13, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

August 10, 2006

Day-Break

No_time_to_do_anything













No time to blog tonight – sorry about that. Please came back tomorrow, or check out the archives.

However, I am still looking for the last 30 13 comments on my 100 dollar post here. If you haven’t left a comment yet, please do so now for a chance to win.

August 10, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 06, 2006

Under new Management

New_management













The workers who lay down the pipes for the landscaping at my house cut the cable in the front yard. I called Charter to come today & replace it, and they may or may not do it. If you read this, blogging may be light until Wednesday, due to lack of internet access at home.

Meanwhile, my 500 Comments Post is moving nicely forward with over 410 425 comments already logged. Thanks to everybody who participated! Less than 90 Hello’s missing before some reader receives the promised $100. Please click there & say “Hello”. It will make you feel good!

The DNA of grow-a-brain

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August 6, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 28, 2006

Introducing the grow-a-brain flag!
Growabrain_flag












Following Philipp Lenssen’s post about Flags for Websites a few weeks ago, I asked if any grow-a-brain reader would care to design a perfect flag for this blog.

Robert M. Geoduck did and sent me the above specimen. Thank you, Sir. This is a thing of beauty, and I’ll always cherish it!

Meanwhile, my 100-Dollars-For-A-Comment-Promotion is taking off with over 330 comments already posted. Thanks to all! And if you own a very high-traffic site of any kind (or smaller), please help me go over the top and get the last 170 comments, by linking to that post, so that I can award the C-note to the lucky winner. And if you haven’t done so already, please click there & say “Hello”. It’s FUN & it’s FREE!

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July 28, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 21, 2006

100 bucks to 1 of 500 commentators

Five_million Congratulations to the blog! Here are tonight’s statistics:

Total number of hits: 5,003,941
Average per day: 5,578.93
Last seven days: 55,893
Today since midnight GMT: 9,415

Like Robert Gale at A Welsh View, I’ve been blogging for nearly 3 years, and just hit the 5 million hits. Volume of visitors had been noticeably slower in the last few months, either because of some new Google indexing or because people are simply getting tired of this same ol’ stuff. So I need to thank the folks behind the sites that generate the highest spikes in traffic recently, especially Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing, “Rasbobbo” at Daily Kos and Caddis from Metafilter. (Hello, Cad’). And to all the many other linkers & bloggers and readers, thanks a lot - I blog for you.

Now, if you read this, I’d like you (again) to post a comment below, just “Hello” will be enough. If I get 500 or more Hello’s, I will award $100 cash prize to one random commentator.

Here are the only rules: The 500 comments have to be posted within 30 days of today. The person who leaves the first comment may pick up the winner if they wish. If they don’t, the second commentator may do so, or the third, etc. If no one of the first 10 commentators will be willing to pick up a winner at the end of the “game”, I will pick one reader myself after drinking a couple of shots. The criteria by which this random person will be picked will manifest itself only then, so don't try to figure it out now. I will post the name of the winner here. The reward will be sent via Paypal or a regular check. Please make sure to use a real email address. Your address, obviously, will never be used for any other purpose. Only one comment per household. NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING. ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS APPLY. (By the way, I planned of composing this little gimmick before reading of Jakob Lodwick’s digg contest, so here, I’m late again)

July 25 August 12, 2006 Update: 101 490 Hello's - Only 399 10 to go!

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August, 15, 2006: Mission accomplished! We have a winner ! (But keep leaving comments here, if you got so far)

July 21, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (539) | TrackBack

May 25, 2006

Blog Of The Day

Blog_of_the_day_1 I’d like to draw your attention to a little-visited page of Grow-a-brain, the Blog Of The Day collection. I’ve kept it on and off since November 2003, and I’ve quietly added new links to it in the last few months. If you are looking to read something different, you may discover some creative folks on this list. I have a few more sites to add to it, and then I’ll shut it down again for a while. If you know of some interesting blogs that are not on the list, please suggest them below, before it’s too late. Today’s BotD is Rosen Blog, by Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg

Similar collections: Dr. Menlo’s Blogeur, Arthur Coddington’s BotD, Small Business Blog of the Day. Also, Crab Apple Lane picks a Blog of the Day with every post

Domain Name Analysis for Grow-a-brain. D’uh

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May 25, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 09, 2006

Celebrating the 300 Millionth American

300000000 (TM)
















Sometimes toward the end of the year, the 300,000,000th American will be born. Who will be that child? What will the future bear for him or her?

Last September, I developed a comprehensive marketing program that was to celebrate the birth of this baby, as well as all children born to live in the 21st century. I secured the domain name 300000000.com and filed for the trademark of the name & the logo above (Designed by the Taz of Citrus Moon studio). I was confident that with the right people behind it, this concept could translate into a business that may generate millions in merchandizing, tie-ins & affiliated partnerships.

But as I was busy with my regular real estate business, I never completed this project. So now I am offering the domain name for sale for the highest bidder.

If you, or anybody you know, can see the value of this domain name & is interested to buy it & use it, please email me at realhanan (at) yahoo (dot) com, or call me on my cell phone, to discuss price. If you know of somebody who‘s involved with similar online projects, please pass it along to them.

Thank you.

May 9, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 28, 2006

4 Million hits!

4_millions Congratulations to the blog! Here are tonight’s statistics:

Total number of hits: 4,022,0991
Average per day: 5,143.33
Last seven days: 93,714
Today since midnight GMT: 18,550

The first million hits took 1 year, 1 month & 25 days (From February 5, 2004 to March 30, 2005)
The 2nd million hits took 5 months & 28 days (September 28, 2005)
The 3rd million took 3 months & 12 days (January 10, 2006)
The 4th million took 2 months & 18 days (today).

I always complain about the relative lack of comments on this blog, in relation to the large number of page views. However, there are three old posts here that, for some obscure reasons, keep building up continual debate & comments. They are the posts about Queen Rania of Jordan, the fight for marijuana legalization and the World’s most beautiful woman.

By the way, it is raining very heavily tonight here in Riverside... I went out looking to buy some soup, and got soaking wet…

If you read this, please say “Hello”.

March 28, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (52) | TrackBack

February 06, 2006

One million wishes

Wishes I received an email this morning from a loyal reader of 'Grow-a-brain' who started a new "Million Pixel Page", and dedicated the first star to this very blog:

“The idea for One million wishes is to create the largest collection of online wishes by filling one million pixels with stars at 10 cents per pixel. You can also supply a link to the website of your choice and 10% of all proceeds will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation”

So if you have a need to make wishes, please visit the site & purchase some pixels….

Growabrain_2 Grab a graphic to link to Grow-a-brain

February 6, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

3,000,000 hits!

3000000_1 Congratulations to the blog! Here are tonight’s statistics:

Total number of hits: 3,011,833
This week: 57,397
Average per day: 4,271.69
Today since midnight GMT: 13,650

Following an idea from the Good Shit blog (Careful, source is NSFW!), I am going to start an occasional feature here, a little link-gift for a random reader-blogger. The first gift is for Anne M. of Ample Sanity:

The world's history for those who are in a hurry, by Bruno Bozzetto

Thank you to the 3 million anonymous Google surfers, or to the 500 visitors who returned 6,000 times each.

Growabrain_2 Grab a graphic to link to Grow-a-brain

January 10, 2006 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

December 16, 2005

Update regarding TypePad

I understand that all Typepad blogs suffered some kind of a breakdown a few days ago, and what you see here now may be an earlier snapshot. Hopefully no data is being lost, as I have composed over three weeks of pre-written material. For whatever it is worth, Typepad will be posting updates to status.sixapart.com.

Please check out this page later for fresh postings.

(By the way, New Zealand is stunningly beautiful. I'll follow up on my trip later.)

December 16, 2005 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 28, 2005

2,000,000 hits

2000000_1 Congratulations to the blog! Here are last night’s statistics:

Total number of hits: 2,001,100
Average per day: 3335.17
Today: 8044
In the last hour: 508
This week: 39717

I know it’s not Go Fug Yourself, and still I’m very pleased...

Every day there are thousands of visitors who arrive here through the search engines (mostly through Google), because “Grow-a-brain” shows as the first or second result to hundreds of search queries. Generally I assumed that these are people who “stumble” into the site, and who possibly stumble right out again. But the more I thought about it, the more I’ve to come appreciate these visits. I now realize that there are many postings here that truly deserve to be the answers people are looking for when they hit the “I feel Lucky” button. It’s actually pretty humbling. Here are a few examples:

Things to do before you die
Realtors Bloggers
Odd & Crazy
Coppola's The Conversation
Unicorn for sale
Military invasion of Iran
Death & Eternity
Who we’all honorin’ here today?
Alinea restaurant
Entomophagy
"You're entering a world of pain". And many more.

So, until the next benchmark, here are a few, free gifts for you: The beautiful Magic carpet and Escape from The Museum of visual poetry by artist Jose Santos

Growabrain_2 Grab a graphic to link to Grow-a-brain

September 28, 2005 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack